General Motors dismisses 23 workers in retaliation for work stoppage!

Mexican GM workers had demanded a raise and greater profit-sharing

Campaign for Labor Rights newsletter. 9 July, 1997.

Dear Friends:

The Coalition for Justice in the Maquiladoras makes the following appeal for
faxes and calls to the General Motors corporation after GM fired workers in
retaliation for a walk out earlier in June. Please respond, and thank you.

Several hundred General Motors workers walked out on a wildcat strike on
June 12, demanding a salary raise and greater profit-sharing. The workers,
employees of General Motors Delco Division in Reynosa, Mexico, were not
satisfied with the $32 dollars that the automotive giant gave them in
profit-sharing for 1996. GM posted profits of 4.963 billion dollars in 1996.

Faced with a paralyzing work stoppage, the GM negotiated a quick settlement:
if workers would return to work, the company would review its wage and
profit-sharing policies. Workers agreed. On June 19, GM offered its Delnosa
workers $45 more in profit-sharing plus a $32 in coupons that could be
redeemed in local stores, but offered no kind of wage increase. The
workers, desperate for any kind of improvement, accepted the offer.

The following is a report by an observer to the events at Delnosa:

Firings at General Motors' Delnosa plants in Reynosa began on June 23 and
have reached undetermined numbers. Workers have claimed that a total of 33
workers have been fired--14 on Monday, 10 on Tuesday, and 9 on Wednesday,
while local management placed the number at 11, and national spokespeople
placed the total at 23. The firings are in retaliation for a work stoppage
of between 7 and 13 hours that occurred on June 12. The work stoppage swept
through most of G.M.'s 6 plants, as workers were demanding an honest account
of the factories' profits. Mexican workers are entitled to 10 percent of
company profits according to the federal profit sharing law. Delnosa in
Reynosa has never provided profit shares
to workers, and this year was no exception. Instead of profit shares,
workers were given a "thank you" payment (gratification) of up to $32.

Convinced that the company earned a profit in 1996, more than 400 workers
participated in the spontaneous work stoppage. Of these 400, only targeted
individuals have been fired--some who have been with the company 17 years.
Exactly why some people have been fired and others not is not clear. On the
one hand, General Motors appears to be punishing workers who were most vocal
in demanding honest application of Mexico's profit sharing laws. Prior to
the work stoppage, a committee was elected by workers in the factories to
investigate the matter of profit sharing. To my knowledge, all of the
members of this committee have been fired. On the other hand, workers who
appear to have been caught up in the sweep of this movement--without ever
taking a high profile position on matters--have also been fired. Finally,
many factory workers believe that G.M. is using videotape recorded by its
guards during the work stoppage to identify workers and fire them. The
message seems clear: those who exercise their rights to compensation will be
fired.

The actual firings have been carried out in a highly visible and
intimidating manner. Uniformed guards have entered the factory assembly
lines to escort workers to "a meeting." A report of one worker indicated
that workers who refuse to walk with the guards were physically removed from
the assembly line. Usually, workers are led to a room where they are
isolated from everyone but a member of the personnel staff and a witness.
They are then told that they are being fired; charges range from disobeying
orders to return to work to inhibiting pregnant women from entering and
exiting the plant (I'm not making this up!). They are
then asked to sign a letter of resignation, which would, in effect, mean
that they would be giving up any legal rights to severance pay. The requests
for workers to sign resignation letters has been accompanied by offers of
some severance pay in some cases--actually some workers have received 100
percent of what they are due, while others have been offered nothing or a
fraction of the severance pay to which they are entitled. Whether or not
workers sign the resignation letter, all have been escorted from the factory
without any opportunity to retrieve their personal effects from their
lockers. In several cases, workers were not allowed to retrieve purses where
they had their money to be used for transportation. The company provided
transportation home for some workers, while others were merely dropped off
at the edge of the main highway several blocks away from the company.
Workers have complained that throughout this firing procedure, they have
been surrounded by uniformed guards--even in the drive to the highway--"as
if we were criminals." One worker was even threatened with criminal charges
that could result in a jail sentence for her role in the work stoppage,
however, no criminal conduct was alluded to in her letter of dismissal.

These firings were unexpected. The union representatives had clearly stated
that, 1. they had reached an agreement with the company that included an
immediate payment to workers of 600 pesos in cash and food coupons; 2. they
expected a continued investigation into the matter of profits; and 3.
assurances had been given that no retribution against any workers would
occur. Many of these points were confirmed by a memo written by plant
manager Chris Muhlenkamp, dated June 18, 1997. In the memo, Muhlenkamp
mentions the "ad hoc committee" that had been formed and the agreement to
cease further work stoppages. He says that "This agreement was made on the
basis of good faith between all involved parties," implying that the company
would not target workers to be fired in retribution. This "good faith" was
violated shortly after it was agreed upon.

Since the firings, G.M. has ordered all exits from the assembly area to be
locked during work shifts. This includes emergency exits which have been
sealed with hasps and padlocks. This has been confirmed by multiple workers
who are concerned about dangers to their well-being should an emergency
occur. Also, employees have been asked to register their locker numbers with
the guards supposedly for periodic inspections. Guards have the keys to all
locks. This seems to be an invasion of privacy. The lockers of fired workers
have been emptied by guards who have taken the contents to the homes of
fired workers.

At this point, supporters should call or write letters to the people below
demanding that: 1. firings for this work stoppage be stopped immediately; 2.
fired workers be given their jobs back; 3. emergency exits be unlocked; 4.
management live up to its agreement to work with labor in determining the
true amount of profit sharing due from 1996. GM did not wait long to punish
those who had threatened its production (worth far more than anything that
they paid out to workers).

In summary:

At least 11 workers were fired outright on June 23, and at least another 12
were pressured to resign in return for severance pay (a common way to force
workers to quit in Mexico). There are reports that at least 33 workers were
fired.

Profit-sharing is an annual tradition in Mexico, usually occurring in May and
June in which companies are required by law to share 10% of their profits
with workers. However the foreign-owned maquiladoras do not report profits
in Mexico, and therefore are not forced to pay any kind of profit-sharing by
the government. Nonetheless, workers absolutely expect to receive some
money at this time for their year's efforts, and when they do not,
situations such as that of Delnosa occur.

GM maquila workers in Mexico are faced with a brutal economic crisis that
has shown no signs of alleviation. The less than $40 per week wage that
they take home does not cover even the basic nutritional requirements of
their families, much less anything else. Yet these workers are some of the
most productive industrial workers in the world, and General Motors employs
some 70,000 of them in different maquiladoras around Mexico.

CJM is calling for supporters to send a letter similar to the attached to
Jack Smith, President and CEO of General Motors, demanding that he hire back
the fired workers, and making him aware that his company's behavior in
Mexico will be closely scrutinized. If you would like to respond to CJM by
e-mail (cjm@igc.apc.org), we can keep a record of who responds to our
requests. Our telephone number is 210-732-8957 and fax is 210-732-8324.

SAMPLE LETTER

We are deeply concerned over reports that at least 11 General Motors
employees were fired and that an additional 12 workers were forced to resign
from GM Delco Division maquiladora in Reynosa, Mexico. It is our
understanding that these workers were dismissed by GM for insisting that the
company share something of its windfall 1996 profits in accordance with
standard labor practice in Mexico.

Workers went on strike on June 12 because GM had offered them a mere $32 in
profit-sharing for all of 1996. The fact that GM offered the workers an
additional $45 worth of cash and bonuses after reviewing their
profit-sharing policy leads us to believe that GM recognized the validity of
their employees' claims. Why then did GM fire some of the workers as
responsible for the walkout?

We question how a company like General Motors, with profits of 4.963 billion
dollars in 1996, can in good conscience fire or otherwise dismiss at least
24 workers simply for demanding to share in the enormous profits that they
help to produce.

Local GM management claims that the strike was violent and illegal. We have
seen no published information that leads us to believe that there was
violence committed by any of the workers, the majority of whom are young
women between the ages of 17 and 25. There is a kind of violence, however,
in the wages that GM pays these young people, who labor for 48 hours per
week and take home salaries usually less than $40 for that week's work.

We ask you to investigate reports that Delnosa management has ordered that
emergency doors be locked so that workers cannot stage any future walkouts.

Your Delnosa employees walked off the lines because they do not make enough
money to even feed their families. Your response has been to fire them for
that. What kind of business are your running?

We urge you to instruct Delnosa management to hire back the fired workers.

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